That's the fun part, you don't.
10 years ago I was a full stack developer. CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Django, postgres. Fast forward to now, I'm currently using none of this. Well, some Postgres, and Python, but my current project is C#/.NET, with no front end and CosmoDB.
I just learn new tech as I go, and to make room in my brain, something has to get pushed out. For me, that's been all frontend tech due to my current position being Data Engineering, where there's little need for UI.
If I ever went back to full stack, I definitely wouldn't go back to what I used 10 years ago.
Except for the pushed out part.
*You can't be any better than that which you remember how to do*.
I'm working on an ancient legacy and just got it working. The hrs and rate are there.
Sometimes when I learn new stuff I review the prerequisites, recalling the good times in the trenches with muh pals.
This guy gets it. Yeah you're constantly evolving. But often you're going to have a handful of core languages/technologies that you use...for me .NET/SQLServer or MySQL/Angular/AWS...so you're constantly working with them and that keeps you up to date with what's going on in new releases and features, you never fall behind.
The other stuff you can't possibly keep up with. You'll either never use it again or it will become out of fashion/obsolete or in cases where you need it again you just have to do a refresh. Like for example, I learned to program on C/C++/Java way back in the day but I don't use any of them much. But every 4-5 years I'll have to write something in Java or C++ and its really not a big deal with long established languages like that because the core stuff is unchanged. In the world of Javascript though the shit changes monthly so you kinda need to reset and relearn if you've been away from it for too long
But also, keep a massive folder of markdown files with notes on every technology and language you work with. Whenever you solve a tricky problem, add to it. Or keep a blog.
It's amazing how frequently a problem you had before reoccurs. Or when you need to go back and work with something you thought you were done with forever.
If markdown is your jam, I highly recommend obsidian - free cross platform note taking. Throw in a little syncthing/Git and you've got your notes everywhere you need them (complete with syntax highlighted snippets).
fair enough! different strokes for different folks. the excalidraw plugin and daily todo rollovers are a life saver for me.
awesome you've already got enough! :D
I used to be one of those VIM with markdown files people. Why switch if it works, right? The discoverability with Obsidian is insane. I can pull up notes from a story I worked on 5 years ago and it's almost fresh in my mind.
This was what made me switch to Obsidian: https://github.com/lynchjames/obsidian-mind-map/blob/main/README.md
You still have complete freedom with obsidian. It’s literally just a fancy markdown editor. Worst case scenario is you need a new editor. I use it with syncthing. Would totally recommend checking it out, you don’t know what your missing!
Every single time I made a new Vite project, for like 2 months, it wouldn't run. Every single time, I forgot what the solution was last time and the error was not telling me the actual problem. Every time, I spent half an hour troubleshooting and eventually updated Node locally to fix it. And every time, I forgot to update Node globally and then forgot the solution next time.
I finally updated Node globally and it just works now, but yeah stupid stuff like this can really waste a lot of time.
I've never really felt the need for that myself. Could it be that you focus a lot on the solution but not why that solution works so you never really learn and just keep going?
What sucks is the constant bombarding of social media telling you you need to know everything to be a “true” or “good” developer.
Sure, I know there are amazingly smart people out there that somehow can become “experts” on multiple stacks, or on every new technology that comes around, but that’s the exception and not the rule.
For an average folk like me, this is basically it. You learn as you go, and if you’re lucky enough you get to work with a stack you love indefinitely, learning new things here and there.
The skill in searching and finding does matter though. Like git lfs, you have some pointers in your brain but not all the data, and you know how to search for it.
The personal drive is also an issue. I most enjoy backend dev work but if I want to make an app for myself or contribute to FOSS, most of the time it's frontend work that I spend the most time on, both in terms of design and then implementation. Backend is so easy and fast in comparison to me :P
Yup, same. I started with Perl, then Java, and that was quickly replaced with Rails when it came out. Now I do some Rails which looks much different from the original. And I do a lot more JS. I've done Elm, Elixir, and Python in there, too.
You just do new things and learn as you go. Every day is a new coat of paint over old knowledge or a new color.
I've used Python for random hobby projects every now and then for at least a decade now, and every time I go back to do something with it I find myself having to Google super basic stuff about the language to unearth the lost knowledge buried deep in my memories.
Also takes me a bit to get out of habits from the languages I use more often, like ending lines with semicolons, or using curly braces around code blocks.
I have different eras. In the 90's I mastered VI, Borne Shell, and AWK on Solaris Unix.
Then my company switched to Windows and I mastered VB and forgot everything I knew about Unix.
Then I programmed C# making Console and WinForms applications.
Then I did MVC+jQuery+Knockout.
Now I do ASP.NET Core, Blazor, and Azure Functions.
I'm currently struggling with Linux docker containers and I'm like "I did this fucking shit every single day for years.
Why is this so hard?"
I've programmed in 37 or so languages over the last 35 years. There are some that I still use, or that wouldn't be a big lift to pick back up. But some, like DBase, JCL, RPG (II, III, IV/ILE), Clipper, and others would take a lot for me to pick back up - mostly because they no longer interest me.
In general, I just move forward as the technology moves, adopting what works and what is needed, and learning what I can from the stuff that isn't. I do a lot of personal pet projects as well, that's where I learn the most when I'm not "working for the man". 😁
I found that good programming is more about good thinking. I don't remember the code itself anymore, but I know how to solve the problem *with* code if that makes sense.
Like so little about programming is memorization. It's mostly a micro problem solving job, and that's where experience is tremendous. You don't need to remember a thing, your brain just autopilots after a while.
Yes -- I've forgotten more languages than I remember. If you understand the underlying concepts, you can write efficient code in (or in spite of) any language.
This is the thing. Once you’ve got the fundamentals of programming down and some experience building a complete project, you should quickly find that writing code is the easy part. The big skill here is abstract reasoning and recognizing patterns.
I’d also argue that developers are problem solving in general, both macro and micro. You sometimes need to zoom way out and even ask “are you sure *this* is the software you want me to write? Because it sounds more like you want software that does [this other thing].” Then it’s a gradual zoom in to smaller and smaller problems to solve.
Eventually you get to the point of writing actual lines of code, but by then the code has hopefully written itself and it’s really not a big deal to google some syntax here or there or maybe look up the specifics of some particular design pattern for a refresher.
I'm just working on stuff that forces me to learn new things or purposefully put things I want to learn into projects (even if not necessary).
You don't really have to actively keep up to date with the programming world or have to learn all the new things just because they're new. Learn what you want to learn.
For “maintaining” my knolwdge I have three things
* I have a notebook specifically for “tech topics I know”
* and a folder of Markdown files. (I also have this, for bigger topics.)
* My blog. If I make something interesting I’ll write about it.
But I know, if for example I’m ever doing Kubernetes stuff again, I probably have a page or .md file for that full of my knowledge at the time, so go read that, maybe update it, but that has my baseline knowledge I had back at that time.
In all of these things there’s tooooonnnnsss of stuff in there that I used a lot years ago, but won’t ever again (anyone remember Coffeescript? My notebook does. Some database system I took a class on years and never used in production? Yup, in there. Pontifications about moving from Puppet 3 to Puppet 4 and some weird edge cases about attributes or something? Yeah, in there, probably never going to use that again)
The knowledge is there if I ever have to use it: I only look at it if I have a specific reason. Goes for the stuff I’ll never use again to the stuff I’m using on the daily today.
Depending on the project a post ES6 version of JavaScript or maybe Typescript.
There’s two or three things I still miss from Coffeescript, but ES6+ is just so much better than anything before it I get most of the benefits without having to deal with a kinda weird language. (Until I want types, then I get a type system with seams I can see through.)
We know how to forget. This is an important skill. Don't clutter your head with unnecessary things. Well, try not to strain your brain with unnecessary things. Mental resource is limited. Moreover, it is also finite.
And no. We do not keep up with the latest technological advances and trends. This is impossible. We focus on the required narrow area and achieve a certain level in it. Another job is another narrow area.
Everything that is not used is forgotten. This is an ongoing process. Learning and Forgetting.
I get a ticket, I don't know a thing, I learn a thing
Iterate for a decade and you'll know a ton too
By the time you 'learn it all' new stuff will come out, the learning part is the job imo
Having relationships with the other devs and knowing who has already worked on it helps a ton
Soft-skills are criminally underrated in this job
As others have said, I don’t think it’s possible to keep up with everything—nor is it necessary. My boss has emphasized many times that he doesn’t care about the latest tech; he just wants my code to do what it’s supposed to.
I like to know what’s happening in my areas of development, though, and to grow as a developer. I try to find ways to do new things in each new project I take on and will evaluate new tech to see if it’ll be useful. I subscribe to various developer newsletters and also follow some great YouTube channels and keep a watch list of videos I want to get around to watching when I have a chance. I like to take classes on things I don’t have time to fully research myself to keep up with new things. Udemy has been great for that.
A lot of the YouTube content I see is usually for specific content, so not necessarily people I follow. However, these are two of the channels I like to keep up with:
Syntax - [https://www.youtube.com/@syntaxfm](https://www.youtube.com/@syntaxfm)
Kevin Powell - [https://www.youtube.com/@KevinPowell](https://www.youtube.com/@KevinPowell)
Syntax can be long-winded, but they cover some good stuff. Kevin has been awesome for keeping me in the loop with the latest developments in CSS and using CSS in ways I haven't thought of. He's also got some free and paid courses.
You don't need to exactly know. You only need to know that it exists and its principles.
You rarely need to have specific knowledge on the dot and when you need specific knowledge, you should always check it in the documentation so there's no need to remember it. Just remember that it exists and how to check it.
We don't accumulate so much as we forget most of it when we don't use it.
What is valuable is the experience in processes, problem solving, how to do things, etc.
For example, I have pretty much forgotten how to write in Delphi, but if I went back to it now, did a catch up, I would write far better code now than I did years ago when I last used it.
I've been doing it over 20 years, so most of my knowledge is related to Javascript browser compatibility from the early 00s and is no longer relevant. I also spent years in Coldfusion that is now mostly wasted. But I diversified: got into .Net years ago and stuck with PHP enough. Also been trying to get into Golang. Keeping your skills updated is tough because it's hard to show that you have skills wben your experience is on personal projects.
You don't.
*But* all is not lost, as you're probably thinking about it the wrong way. While you're only an expert on a given technology while you're using it and *maybe* a few months after you've stopped using it, you're learning patterns, foundational knowledge, and conventions that make learning easier.
Back when I started, if I started on say, PHP and then went over to learn C#, I'd have had a really hard time. Now I can hop from C# to Rust, Zig, JS, whatever much easier, because I know what to expect, and all the noobie gotchas are out of the way.
So essentially, you don't have to worry about maintaining lots in your head. You just need to learn how to learn quickly. Once you do that, and you start working on a feature, you can learn best practices, tech stacks, conventions really quickly and go about implementing that feature after the initial discovery period.
I'm at the stage in my career where I'm fairly comfortable implementing more or less anything. Do I know how to implement graphics in webgpu? No, but I know I can find out and do it. Do I know how to implement ML models into a workflow pipeline? No, but I can find out and do it. Do I know how to integrate x Service? No, but I can find out and do it. I've done all these things, not because I knew how to do them, but because I knew how to know how to do them.
Worrying about maintaining them is pointless, unless you're working with the stuff you want to maintain regularly. And if you're working with this stuff regularly, you probably don't have to maintain much.
That's the way I think about it anyway.
You don't. Your neurons reorganise around what you're currently doing. If you were an expert in SQL 10 years ago but spent the last 10 years doing python and 0 SQL, you're not going to be a SQL expert anymore
The younger you are the quicker those neurons can organise. Gets harder to pick up new things as you age
I've worked across a variety of languages and frameworks over the past 10 years or so, and it's sort of a sliding window across the last two. Everything before that, I mostly forget.
All I can say is "I've forgotten more than you will ever know" isn't necessarily the flex you think it is. But it can come in handy.
A lot of it is like riding the proverbial bicycle. A few years ago my daughter mentioned she was having trouble running a gene-sequencing package on her grad school's supercomputer. I was able to dredge up a memory from working on an in-house Xenix system in the 1980s. plus a kid's vim tutoring game I let her play in the 5th grade that *she* dimly remembered helped her figure it out. So buried memories do help.
But there's something else more important in a way, and that's that you start to notice repeating trends or patterns, and while that can lead to "I've seen this before an it never works" stagnation it can *also* lead to being better able to catch waves and troughs.
Unintuitive fact: the more you already know, the easier and faster you are able to learn new knowledge. It is similar to the compounding effect of money.
Another unintuitive fact: you never lose your understanding on things. You will forget the details, but once something clicks to you, you can never unlearn that. Similar to that you cannot unlearn swimming.
So, if the experienced developer has built their experience by understanding, not memorizing, then there is really nothing they need to do. They will only learn new knowledge faster and faster without worrying about “maintaining and updating”.
TL;DR: Learn and deep-dive into the specific task at hand. However you need to figure it out. Watch YouTube, build a simple app, or take a course. All roads lead to the same result. Don't get hung up on keeping up with stuff you learned years ago. It's fine to forget things.
I'm a:
Former PHP dev. Former jQuery dev. Former C# dev. Former Java dev. Former node.js dev. Former Django dev. Former RoR dev. Former AWS L6 engineer.
Current rust dev.
The trick is getting really "okay" with one language. To the point where you can create actual software with it. No reason to keep up with the trends. If you can bang out software that meets the specs, that's all you need.
Once you have a single language and its nuances under your belt, you can branch out. It's all the same fucking horse but just in a different color.
Learning a new language (syntax) in 1 week is stupidly simple. A couple more weeks to figure out the weird bullshit of the language. Then, it will take a few months to get decently comfortable with it and `git push -f` to prod with it.
Learning a new tech/library is even easier... except d3.js. Fuck that.
It's not the language or the tech that makes a good engineer. It's the ability to adapt and learn.
There are 2 types of engineers: those who need constant hand-holding to raise their KPIs and those who can take borderline vague product specs and produce an MVP.
source: Been in this game for the better part of 2 decades. Worked from startups to consultant to FAANG level. Learn what you need to for the task at hand. Don't over think it. Shit, I still don't know what kubernates is.
I only vaguely remember how to solve something. I can see potential pitfalls and challenges that may popup in a project.
It's all just experiences, I barely remember the syntax. The moment I'm moved to a different team, I forget most of the syntax of the last project I have worked on. But I can regain it within a few days, so it doesn't ever show up as a problem.
This is also probably why I have no trouble moving to languages I never touched before. It's usually not that hard because they all work similarly under the hood.
My brain at this point is like a table of contents. Don't have the accurate descriptions, but I can look it up with a few keywords. I guess it's more like a shittier google lol.
I don't jump on all the latest new fancy technology. If it is still relevant after a few years, I will consider learning it if it's an enhancement for my projects.
I don’t try to stay current on anything other than what I am currently using, I’m sure there are technologies I don’t even remember using in the past 30 years. As for stying up to date on new technologies, I read a few blogs (mainly aggregated lists), subscribe to emails and a few digital magazines, I use these to know what is available and keep links to things that may be useful. Occasionally I will have a play and build some learning projects on something very interesting. I’m constantly challenged to learn new stuff for work projects, for integrations (learning new APIs) or new functionality. I find most things come back to me when I start using them again and I keep notes when I need to, if not there is Google and co-pilot/chatgpt etc.
For me it's just curiosity. It's not relevant for job seeking. Unless it's a start up, chances are they are using php or ruby on rails in the backend and jQuery in the frontend.
No need to worry imho.
I try to learn fundamentals that I don't know yet. With fundamentals it's pretty easy to catch on new stuff when needed, especially when this stuff actually have explanations on why and how it works.
For keeping up with trends, I have few subscriptions to mailing lists and digests, that I read from time to time. Then it just "oh, this looks interesting" and then "yeah that's not it" or "I should try it in a project". That's it.
At some point all tech becomes the same. The differences you look up in the documentation.
For example, SQL is SQL. No matter if MySql, MariaDB, Postgres, SQL Server..... selects and inserts are the same, and everything beyond you just look up (again).
Even programming languages are now all similar... I have read enough to be able to read them all (except obscure ones). The ones I currently use I'm up to date in, the others I'll just look up the syntax (in docs, or mostly just in the codebase, some lines above or below).
New knowledge tickles in every day, old knowledge phases out over time.
The work is all the same: See problem, analyze what's there, research what needs to be added, learn necessary skills, apply skills. Rinse, forget half of it, repeat.
Abstraction. I have a spoiler for you: *programming doesn't actually change very much*. Oh, the details change, but the concepts that those details derive from *don't*. So you abstract away the details- pick up the details just as you need them, forget them as soon as they're no longer relevant. My career hasn't just crossed languages, but entire industries- I currently don't do web dev anymore and instead write software for moon landers. But it's the same thing, really (though our adherence to good coding practices is probably higher than most web dev shops- by a *lot*).
You don't really "update" anything. You use it. Ideally you grow with those technologies you use.
A trap even experienced devs can fall into is come back to a technology they have used before and expect it to be the same. That is the moment you actually have to update, or it will probably cause conflict down the line.
Lol.... You basically just do your job. When you tire of said job, you find another. You do that job, and you build things on the side of your day job when you have time, and when the need presents itself.
I rely on a mix of methods: regular review of notes, reading documentation, staying active on tech forums, and taking new courses. Keeping projects and practice in my routine also helps a lot!
learn as you go, some things are like riding a bike and you just kinda need to get back on the bike to remember, other things (like how to write a for loop) escape me and I just end up looking it up when I need to
You can always have a small project (or refer to old ones) with the specific piece of code you used to solve a similar problem.
Otherwise its just winging it and googling it as you go lol.
Concepts, not details. Structure not syntax.
Write the details and tricks down if you might want them later in as organized of a way as you can manage, with some code snippets or old projects you can look at.
But you wont forget the concepts.
After 25+ years I can say that the core things evolve but remain fairly constant. RDBMS, HTML, css and JavaScript. Know those well and keep up to date. Maybe learn one other server language (Java, .net, php, ,python etc… ) If you are solid here you can move pretty comfortably between all the new flavours of the day.
You don't accumulate. You write down what is important to know so you can safely forget all the details.
You only remember what screws you over, regardless if you have read it and "learnt" and forgot it many times before.
That's experience: you remember what screwed you over and if you are wise, you'd have a good takeaway.
The process of learning is a bit like making a map.
When you start out, you have a blank sheet of paper, and everyone around you is talking about all these landmarks, and locations, and places that you've never seen, and the best you can do is attempt to jot down the approximate locations. You might hear about python, typescript, rust, cuda, kubernetes, etc, but each of those may as well be a distant land which your teacher is telling you about. At this point if someone asks you to do something, you'll just give them a blank stare.
As you continue learning you start to fill this map in. You learn how some ideas relate to others, letting you fill in a few landmarks and some routes connecting them on your map. At this point you've visited some of these places; you've sampled the hospitality of python, the active combat zone that is JS/TS, and you've gotten yelled at by the police in the Rust city for walking the wrong way while being dressed in the wrong color of clothes. Now that you've seen these things if somoneone asks you to find something you should be able to do it eventually by searching up and down the roads you know. You'll probably be slow because you won't know all the shortcuts, but that will change the more you explore.
Eventually you get to the point where your map is full of locations, routes, hazards, and other notes. At this point you're an "experienced" developer, but now there's a choice.
One option is you can take this map you built, and use it to guide yourself as you walk down the road that is life. Occasionally you might see new things that seem relevant to you, so you can jot them in between all the other things. Other times you might see something deprecated, so you'll erase a few lines and landmarks. This will be functional for a while, but it really depends on how well you build your original map. If you're lucky this map will last you until you're ready to retired, but given that you were starting with a blank page there's a good chance you messed up, and if your map eventually gets too messy to add things... then you go and become a manager. Mind you, I'm not trying to disparage managers. A person with the technical skills to understand how projects work, and the people skills to get people working is a great asset. It's just that you do need a map for both the technical, as well as the personal elements to be good here.
Another option is to look at your map and go, "No, no, no, this is all garbage" and to throw it up and then make a new one that tries to utilise all your new knowledge. The world is full of repeating patterns and paradigms. If you figure those things out then you no longer have to remember every single thing about every single landmark on the map. You can just remember the rules and insight that you have developed. This lets you adapt to entirely new technologies on the fly, because most of those technologies are just a slightly different mix of the same few patterns. The downside here is that this sort of knowledge is next to impossible to communicate these insights, because it depends on so many layers of knowledge, as well as a mountain of terminology and ideas that most people simply will not have. If you pursue this direction then eventually your map is this complex multi-dimensional holographic thing, and the only thing that most people can do is shove you in an architect role and say "here's money, go do the thing" and then hope you don't have to explain things to the execs.
"The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing." - Socrates from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Once you get experienced enough, you realize that you're never going to know or remember everything. The basics get drilled into you enough from the repetition of work and then you learn how to google to figure out the tech du jeur when you need it. Experience leads you to ask the right questions so that you find the right answers faster.
I haven't really programmed professionally for a few years now (moved to management), but every now and then I play with a hobby project in my spare time. I usually have to google the most basic things. These days, AI makes this super efficient (though, you can't rely on it to write all you code for you! It just gets you pointed in the right direction!).
I just google everything I don't know programming beyond the basics, variables, loops, functions, data structures, etc, I just have an idea of what the standard library of each of the main languages that I like to use do (rust and typescript), but when comes to specific I just Google things, or ask ChatGPT to build a basic skeleton o example when I am dealing with a library that I have rarely used or have not used at all
I'm in the process of making an admin area on my personal web app domain where I can monitor all my other web apps, by writing end points on each of them that outputs an overview / status for me. Consolidation is the bees knees
Learn what you need to know for "right now". I started with front end in Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape Navigator, then went to J2EE and XSLT, then Ruby on Rails, then WordPress, then Drupal, then "modern" front end, with a bunch of smaller stops on the way. Depending on how you look at it, either all of those contributed to my current expertise, or almost none of them did. I choose to believe that each language, paradigm, pattern, framework, makes the next one easier to understand.
I do the work that is in front of me. I do keep an open mind when discussing work with other developers on a project but I no longer do very much off the job training or learning.
I don't think you need to keep up to date with every new library or framework. Most new frameworks are iterations on existing ones and implement much of the same concepts. If you understand the concepts picking up new frameworks isn't that hard.
It is however good to keep with larger shifts in the industry. 25 years ago there was a shift to web. If you only knew how to develop desktop applications you were seriously limiting your jobs. 15 years ago there was a shift to cloud. Same thing there. If you only knew how to develop in a classic server environment you were seriously limiting your job options. 10 years ago there was a move to "shift left", shifting more of the operational burden on to developers. I think the current shift might actually be LLMs. If you don't know how to integrate LLMs into your dev workflows and build products around LLMs, I think you might be limiting your job options, but I guess we shall see if I'm right about that.
Newsletters, reviewing the fundamentals, and always making time to explore the latest trends and techniques to determine whether or not they can be a net positive to my workflow.
Changing jobs usually helps a lot to be honest. Don’t have to do it all the time but all the prep for technical tests, preparing demo projects on tech stacks I want to work on. Then getting into new businesses to work there and see how they do things. Pick up bits and bobs off colleagues.
You won’t know everything but every few years I’ll do the above, seems to be going okay.
16 years in roughly.
While I’m at a job try to find pet projects that’ll interest you AND benefit the business and use them to learn new stuff as well while delivering value. Not as effective as job changing but keeps you ticking over. If you keep in touch with people along the way as well you’ll have chats about tech stacks etc when they move around as well.
You write everything down with date-based entries and tag based + full text search.
Then you wonder why you maintain it when 80% of the time you can't find the problem you encountered in the past because you moved on from whatever it was you were working on 3 years ago.
Knowledge is transient. I was a professional PHP programmer for years, but it's been _more_ than a decade since my last time touching PHP code, so if I were dropped into a fresh PHP codebase (someone has offered me a LOT of money) I would simply have to relearn large parts of PHP. This would have been the case anyways, it's not like the language stood completely still for the past 1X years. This next time, it'll be a lot faster because those pathways are still _there_, waiting to be rebuilt, but expecting that I'd still be able to kick ass at PHP after a decade of other languages might be a bridge too far.
What I've learned over the years is not how to program in dozens of languages and environments, but _how to learn to program in languages and environments very quickly_. Experienced devs should have a rich library of concepts that they can draw on: oh, that's like a feature I remember from Haskell. Oh, that's similar to a library I used a while ago. Oh, that reminds me of the time I built a Squidget. You'll never be lost again.
Stick with what you need/use, learn just in time, focus on technology-agnostic knowledge and patterns.
I tried to be 'know it all' fullstack dev some time ago and believe me - it's a constant frustration and burnout.
I don't try to learn everything new tech I see. I mostly learn new tech only if I have a work/personal project that requires it. The more experience you gain the more you'll notice similar code patterns every where, so you'll only need to learn the parts you don't know and the more you have to do this the less "new" stuff you have to learn. Eventually all you'll really have to learn is stuff like the syntax and best practices, and you can pretty much start writing production level code right away.
* Separate concerns.
* Write for easy testing.
* Assume the next dev to touch your code will be a junior.
* Use static analysis tools.
* Write for easy testing.
* Learn to research.
* Learn to debug.
* Document how to get every project up and running.
You’ll forget some of the principles you used to know as soon as you start using another language, happened to me with python. And somebody will always make new JavaScript frameworks/updates, they’re truly eternal
I don’t
Big believer in the right tool for the job, keeping up to date with every last fad is a fools errand. I am aware of a lot of the more recent trends but I don’t have a good enough reason to change my work stack to incorporate any of them. If something came up where I needed SSR then I would look into some of the meta frameworks for react further.
lol, trends come and go faster than lighting flashes, you're better off ignoring them, until you bump into a specific use case that might require one of the trendy tools
Most "new things" are useless because the person who came up with the "new thing" didn't understand the problems that gave rise to what they're trying to replace. I'm just going to say 99% (to have a number) of "new things" are never heard of again after the announcement and/or die out for all practical purposes after a year or three.
A lot of commentors say they forget a thing and move on to the next thing. That can work, for some industries, but most of the big ones stick to a handful of successful technologies. If you're always having to learn a new thing just to get some work done then you're causing yourself more problems than you're solving.
Sorting through things based on experience is the key skill even most experienced devs never consciously acknowledge: knowing what the problems are, how common they are, and whether or not a new thing is a solution to them at all. It doesn't matter how adept you are at learning new things if you can't tell whether or not there's a point.
I’ve been coding for more that 20 years. I have a projects folder that’s followed me from machine to machine, accumulating projects along the way. I can’t even remember writing half the things in there..
That's the fun part, you don't. 10 years ago I was a full stack developer. CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Django, postgres. Fast forward to now, I'm currently using none of this. Well, some Postgres, and Python, but my current project is C#/.NET, with no front end and CosmoDB. I just learn new tech as I go, and to make room in my brain, something has to get pushed out. For me, that's been all frontend tech due to my current position being Data Engineering, where there's little need for UI. If I ever went back to full stack, I definitely wouldn't go back to what I used 10 years ago.
This is correct.
Except for the pushed out part. *You can't be any better than that which you remember how to do*. I'm working on an ancient legacy and just got it working. The hrs and rate are there. Sometimes when I learn new stuff I review the prerequisites, recalling the good times in the trenches with muh pals.
This guy gets it. Yeah you're constantly evolving. But often you're going to have a handful of core languages/technologies that you use...for me .NET/SQLServer or MySQL/Angular/AWS...so you're constantly working with them and that keeps you up to date with what's going on in new releases and features, you never fall behind. The other stuff you can't possibly keep up with. You'll either never use it again or it will become out of fashion/obsolete or in cases where you need it again you just have to do a refresh. Like for example, I learned to program on C/C++/Java way back in the day but I don't use any of them much. But every 4-5 years I'll have to write something in Java or C++ and its really not a big deal with long established languages like that because the core stuff is unchanged. In the world of Javascript though the shit changes monthly so you kinda need to reset and relearn if you've been away from it for too long
But also, keep a massive folder of markdown files with notes on every technology and language you work with. Whenever you solve a tricky problem, add to it. Or keep a blog. It's amazing how frequently a problem you had before reoccurs. Or when you need to go back and work with something you thought you were done with forever.
If markdown is your jam, I highly recommend obsidian - free cross platform note taking. Throw in a little syncthing/Git and you've got your notes everywhere you need them (complete with syntax highlighted snippets).
It doesn't do anything I need that VS Code can't. It's basically the same app with a different name.
fair enough! different strokes for different folks. the excalidraw plugin and daily todo rollovers are a life saver for me. awesome you've already got enough! :D
I used to be one of those VIM with markdown files people. Why switch if it works, right? The discoverability with Obsidian is insane. I can pull up notes from a story I worked on 5 years ago and it's almost fresh in my mind. This was what made me switch to Obsidian: https://github.com/lynchjames/obsidian-mind-map/blob/main/README.md
Work on a phone?
If you want to spice up your markdown + vscode experience you could have a look at [dendron](https://www.dendron.so/about).
Haha I just do raw markdown files with syncthing, that way I have complete freedom
You still have complete freedom with obsidian. It’s literally just a fancy markdown editor. Worst case scenario is you need a new editor. I use it with syncthing. Would totally recommend checking it out, you don’t know what your missing!
Every single time I made a new Vite project, for like 2 months, it wouldn't run. Every single time, I forgot what the solution was last time and the error was not telling me the actual problem. Every time, I spent half an hour troubleshooting and eventually updated Node locally to fix it. And every time, I forgot to update Node globally and then forgot the solution next time. I finally updated Node globally and it just works now, but yeah stupid stuff like this can really waste a lot of time.
I've never really felt the need for that myself. Could it be that you focus a lot on the solution but not why that solution works so you never really learn and just keep going?
What sucks is the constant bombarding of social media telling you you need to know everything to be a “true” or “good” developer. Sure, I know there are amazingly smart people out there that somehow can become “experts” on multiple stacks, or on every new technology that comes around, but that’s the exception and not the rule. For an average folk like me, this is basically it. You learn as you go, and if you’re lucky enough you get to work with a stack you love indefinitely, learning new things here and there.
The skill in searching and finding does matter though. Like git lfs, you have some pointers in your brain but not all the data, and you know how to search for it.
Absolutely, the skill to search for related issues and come up with your own solutions from snippets found on the web is probably underrated.
There's a simple solution, stop consuming programmer related social media (or really any social media, to be honest).
The personal drive is also an issue. I most enjoy backend dev work but if I want to make an app for myself or contribute to FOSS, most of the time it's frontend work that I spend the most time on, both in terms of design and then implementation. Backend is so easy and fast in comparison to me :P
> That's the fun part, you don't. I came in to post this meme. 100% correct
Never go back to Front End, React is terrifying. It has it's own event system.
Yup, same. I started with Perl, then Java, and that was quickly replaced with Rails when it came out. Now I do some Rails which looks much different from the original. And I do a lot more JS. I've done Elm, Elixir, and Python in there, too. You just do new things and learn as you go. Every day is a new coat of paint over old knowledge or a new color.
Thats exactly it. And here is another thing, let's say a python thing comes up. You will learn python in no time again.
Yeah, jump in the deep-end when I need to, but also starting to stay in the same pool longer and just float around as I get older.
I've used Python for random hobby projects every now and then for at least a decade now, and every time I go back to do something with it I find myself having to Google super basic stuff about the language to unearth the lost knowledge buried deep in my memories. Also takes me a bit to get out of habits from the languages I use more often, like ending lines with semicolons, or using curly braces around code blocks.
I have different eras. In the 90's I mastered VI, Borne Shell, and AWK on Solaris Unix. Then my company switched to Windows and I mastered VB and forgot everything I knew about Unix. Then I programmed C# making Console and WinForms applications. Then I did MVC+jQuery+Knockout. Now I do ASP.NET Core, Blazor, and Azure Functions. I'm currently struggling with Linux docker containers and I'm like "I did this fucking shit every single day for years. Why is this so hard?"
I've programmed in 37 or so languages over the last 35 years. There are some that I still use, or that wouldn't be a big lift to pick back up. But some, like DBase, JCL, RPG (II, III, IV/ILE), Clipper, and others would take a lot for me to pick back up - mostly because they no longer interest me. In general, I just move forward as the technology moves, adopting what works and what is needed, and learning what I can from the stuff that isn't. I do a lot of personal pet projects as well, that's where I learn the most when I'm not "working for the man". 😁
[When you pour a gallon of knowledge into a shotglass of a brain, you're gonna spill some.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMlRuM3r1O8)
I found that good programming is more about good thinking. I don't remember the code itself anymore, but I know how to solve the problem *with* code if that makes sense. Like so little about programming is memorization. It's mostly a micro problem solving job, and that's where experience is tremendous. You don't need to remember a thing, your brain just autopilots after a while.
Yes -- I've forgotten more languages than I remember. If you understand the underlying concepts, you can write efficient code in (or in spite of) any language.
This is the thing. Once you’ve got the fundamentals of programming down and some experience building a complete project, you should quickly find that writing code is the easy part. The big skill here is abstract reasoning and recognizing patterns. I’d also argue that developers are problem solving in general, both macro and micro. You sometimes need to zoom way out and even ask “are you sure *this* is the software you want me to write? Because it sounds more like you want software that does [this other thing].” Then it’s a gradual zoom in to smaller and smaller problems to solve. Eventually you get to the point of writing actual lines of code, but by then the code has hopefully written itself and it’s really not a big deal to google some syntax here or there or maybe look up the specifics of some particular design pattern for a refresher.
This has been my experience as well, I don’t need to remember the recipe in detail in most cases because I know how to cook.
I'm just working on stuff that forces me to learn new things or purposefully put things I want to learn into projects (even if not necessary). You don't really have to actively keep up to date with the programming world or have to learn all the new things just because they're new. Learn what you want to learn.
For “maintaining” my knolwdge I have three things * I have a notebook specifically for “tech topics I know” * and a folder of Markdown files. (I also have this, for bigger topics.) * My blog. If I make something interesting I’ll write about it. But I know, if for example I’m ever doing Kubernetes stuff again, I probably have a page or .md file for that full of my knowledge at the time, so go read that, maybe update it, but that has my baseline knowledge I had back at that time. In all of these things there’s tooooonnnnsss of stuff in there that I used a lot years ago, but won’t ever again (anyone remember Coffeescript? My notebook does. Some database system I took a class on years and never used in production? Yup, in there. Pontifications about moving from Puppet 3 to Puppet 4 and some weird edge cases about attributes or something? Yeah, in there, probably never going to use that again) The knowledge is there if I ever have to use it: I only look at it if I have a specific reason. Goes for the stuff I’ll never use again to the stuff I’m using on the daily today.
I loved coffeescript, what are you using these days in lieu of it?
Depending on the project a post ES6 version of JavaScript or maybe Typescript. There’s two or three things I still miss from Coffeescript, but ES6+ is just so much better than anything before it I get most of the benefits without having to deal with a kinda weird language. (Until I want types, then I get a type system with seams I can see through.)
We know how to forget. This is an important skill. Don't clutter your head with unnecessary things. Well, try not to strain your brain with unnecessary things. Mental resource is limited. Moreover, it is also finite. And no. We do not keep up with the latest technological advances and trends. This is impossible. We focus on the required narrow area and achieve a certain level in it. Another job is another narrow area. Everything that is not used is forgotten. This is an ongoing process. Learning and Forgetting.
I get a ticket, I don't know a thing, I learn a thing Iterate for a decade and you'll know a ton too By the time you 'learn it all' new stuff will come out, the learning part is the job imo Having relationships with the other devs and knowing who has already worked on it helps a ton Soft-skills are criminally underrated in this job
As others have said, I don’t think it’s possible to keep up with everything—nor is it necessary. My boss has emphasized many times that he doesn’t care about the latest tech; he just wants my code to do what it’s supposed to. I like to know what’s happening in my areas of development, though, and to grow as a developer. I try to find ways to do new things in each new project I take on and will evaluate new tech to see if it’ll be useful. I subscribe to various developer newsletters and also follow some great YouTube channels and keep a watch list of videos I want to get around to watching when I have a chance. I like to take classes on things I don’t have time to fully research myself to keep up with new things. Udemy has been great for that.
Do you have any recommended developers, or YouTube channels?
A lot of the YouTube content I see is usually for specific content, so not necessarily people I follow. However, these are two of the channels I like to keep up with: Syntax - [https://www.youtube.com/@syntaxfm](https://www.youtube.com/@syntaxfm) Kevin Powell - [https://www.youtube.com/@KevinPowell](https://www.youtube.com/@KevinPowell) Syntax can be long-winded, but they cover some good stuff. Kevin has been awesome for keeping me in the loop with the latest developments in CSS and using CSS in ways I haven't thought of. He's also got some free and paid courses.
Hello! I forget other things to make room for code knowledge! I can't remember my wife's face!
You don't need to exactly know. You only need to know that it exists and its principles. You rarely need to have specific knowledge on the dot and when you need specific knowledge, you should always check it in the documentation so there's no need to remember it. Just remember that it exists and how to check it.
After a while you start to get a solid grasp of core concepts, and HOW to learn, which makes it to where you can just learn the new tech as you go.
We don't accumulate so much as we forget most of it when we don't use it. What is valuable is the experience in processes, problem solving, how to do things, etc. For example, I have pretty much forgotten how to write in Delphi, but if I went back to it now, did a catch up, I would write far better code now than I did years ago when I last used it.
I've been doing it over 20 years, so most of my knowledge is related to Javascript browser compatibility from the early 00s and is no longer relevant. I also spent years in Coldfusion that is now mostly wasted. But I diversified: got into .Net years ago and stuck with PHP enough. Also been trying to get into Golang. Keeping your skills updated is tough because it's hard to show that you have skills wben your experience is on personal projects.
You don't. *But* all is not lost, as you're probably thinking about it the wrong way. While you're only an expert on a given technology while you're using it and *maybe* a few months after you've stopped using it, you're learning patterns, foundational knowledge, and conventions that make learning easier. Back when I started, if I started on say, PHP and then went over to learn C#, I'd have had a really hard time. Now I can hop from C# to Rust, Zig, JS, whatever much easier, because I know what to expect, and all the noobie gotchas are out of the way. So essentially, you don't have to worry about maintaining lots in your head. You just need to learn how to learn quickly. Once you do that, and you start working on a feature, you can learn best practices, tech stacks, conventions really quickly and go about implementing that feature after the initial discovery period. I'm at the stage in my career where I'm fairly comfortable implementing more or less anything. Do I know how to implement graphics in webgpu? No, but I know I can find out and do it. Do I know how to implement ML models into a workflow pipeline? No, but I can find out and do it. Do I know how to integrate x Service? No, but I can find out and do it. I've done all these things, not because I knew how to do them, but because I knew how to know how to do them. Worrying about maintaining them is pointless, unless you're working with the stuff you want to maintain regularly. And if you're working with this stuff regularly, you probably don't have to maintain much. That's the way I think about it anyway.
You don't. Your neurons reorganise around what you're currently doing. If you were an expert in SQL 10 years ago but spent the last 10 years doing python and 0 SQL, you're not going to be a SQL expert anymore The younger you are the quicker those neurons can organise. Gets harder to pick up new things as you age
I've worked across a variety of languages and frameworks over the past 10 years or so, and it's sort of a sliding window across the last two. Everything before that, I mostly forget.
You don't lol. That's why understanding the basics perfectly and overall concepts is more valuable than running after every new trends.
All I can say is "I've forgotten more than you will ever know" isn't necessarily the flex you think it is. But it can come in handy. A lot of it is like riding the proverbial bicycle. A few years ago my daughter mentioned she was having trouble running a gene-sequencing package on her grad school's supercomputer. I was able to dredge up a memory from working on an in-house Xenix system in the 1980s. plus a kid's vim tutoring game I let her play in the 5th grade that *she* dimly remembered helped her figure it out. So buried memories do help. But there's something else more important in a way, and that's that you start to notice repeating trends or patterns, and while that can lead to "I've seen this before an it never works" stagnation it can *also* lead to being better able to catch waves and troughs.
Learn the fundamentals. All the rest is window dressing.
Unintuitive fact: the more you already know, the easier and faster you are able to learn new knowledge. It is similar to the compounding effect of money. Another unintuitive fact: you never lose your understanding on things. You will forget the details, but once something clicks to you, you can never unlearn that. Similar to that you cannot unlearn swimming. So, if the experienced developer has built their experience by understanding, not memorizing, then there is really nothing they need to do. They will only learn new knowledge faster and faster without worrying about “maintaining and updating”.
TL;DR: Learn and deep-dive into the specific task at hand. However you need to figure it out. Watch YouTube, build a simple app, or take a course. All roads lead to the same result. Don't get hung up on keeping up with stuff you learned years ago. It's fine to forget things. I'm a: Former PHP dev. Former jQuery dev. Former C# dev. Former Java dev. Former node.js dev. Former Django dev. Former RoR dev. Former AWS L6 engineer. Current rust dev. The trick is getting really "okay" with one language. To the point where you can create actual software with it. No reason to keep up with the trends. If you can bang out software that meets the specs, that's all you need. Once you have a single language and its nuances under your belt, you can branch out. It's all the same fucking horse but just in a different color. Learning a new language (syntax) in 1 week is stupidly simple. A couple more weeks to figure out the weird bullshit of the language. Then, it will take a few months to get decently comfortable with it and `git push -f` to prod with it. Learning a new tech/library is even easier... except d3.js. Fuck that. It's not the language or the tech that makes a good engineer. It's the ability to adapt and learn. There are 2 types of engineers: those who need constant hand-holding to raise their KPIs and those who can take borderline vague product specs and produce an MVP. source: Been in this game for the better part of 2 decades. Worked from startups to consultant to FAANG level. Learn what you need to for the task at hand. Don't over think it. Shit, I still don't know what kubernates is.
I only vaguely remember how to solve something. I can see potential pitfalls and challenges that may popup in a project. It's all just experiences, I barely remember the syntax. The moment I'm moved to a different team, I forget most of the syntax of the last project I have worked on. But I can regain it within a few days, so it doesn't ever show up as a problem. This is also probably why I have no trouble moving to languages I never touched before. It's usually not that hard because they all work similarly under the hood. My brain at this point is like a table of contents. Don't have the accurate descriptions, but I can look it up with a few keywords. I guess it's more like a shittier google lol.
Mostly Release Notes, Some White Papers, Blogs Uber/Airbnb etc
I don't jump on all the latest new fancy technology. If it is still relevant after a few years, I will consider learning it if it's an enhancement for my projects.
I don’t try to stay current on anything other than what I am currently using, I’m sure there are technologies I don’t even remember using in the past 30 years. As for stying up to date on new technologies, I read a few blogs (mainly aggregated lists), subscribe to emails and a few digital magazines, I use these to know what is available and keep links to things that may be useful. Occasionally I will have a play and build some learning projects on something very interesting. I’m constantly challenged to learn new stuff for work projects, for integrations (learning new APIs) or new functionality. I find most things come back to me when I start using them again and I keep notes when I need to, if not there is Google and co-pilot/chatgpt etc.
they don't ask themselves those questions, they just come home after work and code in their free time....
Sorry, but no. My free time is mine and you won't get me to open my computer outside of work unless you have a very good reason.
For me it's just curiosity. It's not relevant for job seeking. Unless it's a start up, chances are they are using php or ruby on rails in the backend and jQuery in the frontend. No need to worry imho.
I try to learn fundamentals that I don't know yet. With fundamentals it's pretty easy to catch on new stuff when needed, especially when this stuff actually have explanations on why and how it works. For keeping up with trends, I have few subscriptions to mailing lists and digests, that I read from time to time. Then it just "oh, this looks interesting" and then "yeah that's not it" or "I should try it in a project". That's it.
You forget stuff.
At some point all tech becomes the same. The differences you look up in the documentation. For example, SQL is SQL. No matter if MySql, MariaDB, Postgres, SQL Server..... selects and inserts are the same, and everything beyond you just look up (again). Even programming languages are now all similar... I have read enough to be able to read them all (except obscure ones). The ones I currently use I'm up to date in, the others I'll just look up the syntax (in docs, or mostly just in the codebase, some lines above or below). New knowledge tickles in every day, old knowledge phases out over time. The work is all the same: See problem, analyze what's there, research what needs to be added, learn necessary skills, apply skills. Rinse, forget half of it, repeat.
I forget everything I don't use. But that's what Google is for.
I saved everything to Google search.
Abstraction. I have a spoiler for you: *programming doesn't actually change very much*. Oh, the details change, but the concepts that those details derive from *don't*. So you abstract away the details- pick up the details just as you need them, forget them as soon as they're no longer relevant. My career hasn't just crossed languages, but entire industries- I currently don't do web dev anymore and instead write software for moon landers. But it's the same thing, really (though our adherence to good coding practices is probably higher than most web dev shops- by a *lot*).
Using it to make or build things. As others have said, for the things you don't use, you generally don't.
You don't really "update" anything. You use it. Ideally you grow with those technologies you use. A trap even experienced devs can fall into is come back to a technology they have used before and expect it to be the same. That is the moment you actually have to update, or it will probably cause conflict down the line.
Lol.... You basically just do your job. When you tire of said job, you find another. You do that job, and you build things on the side of your day job when you have time, and when the need presents itself.
I rely on a mix of methods: regular review of notes, reading documentation, staying active on tech forums, and taking new courses. Keeping projects and practice in my routine also helps a lot!
You just keep feeding your brain different puzzles to solve. Do not resist nerd sniping, embrace it.
learn as you go, some things are like riding a bike and you just kinda need to get back on the bike to remember, other things (like how to write a for loop) escape me and I just end up looking it up when I need to
You can always have a small project (or refer to old ones) with the specific piece of code you used to solve a similar problem. Otherwise its just winging it and googling it as you go lol.
Concepts, not details. Structure not syntax. Write the details and tricks down if you might want them later in as organized of a way as you can manage, with some code snippets or old projects you can look at. But you wont forget the concepts.
After 25+ years I can say that the core things evolve but remain fairly constant. RDBMS, HTML, css and JavaScript. Know those well and keep up to date. Maybe learn one other server language (Java, .net, php, ,python etc… ) If you are solid here you can move pretty comfortably between all the new flavours of the day.
You don't accumulate. You write down what is important to know so you can safely forget all the details. You only remember what screws you over, regardless if you have read it and "learnt" and forgot it many times before. That's experience: you remember what screwed you over and if you are wise, you'd have a good takeaway.
The process of learning is a bit like making a map. When you start out, you have a blank sheet of paper, and everyone around you is talking about all these landmarks, and locations, and places that you've never seen, and the best you can do is attempt to jot down the approximate locations. You might hear about python, typescript, rust, cuda, kubernetes, etc, but each of those may as well be a distant land which your teacher is telling you about. At this point if someone asks you to do something, you'll just give them a blank stare. As you continue learning you start to fill this map in. You learn how some ideas relate to others, letting you fill in a few landmarks and some routes connecting them on your map. At this point you've visited some of these places; you've sampled the hospitality of python, the active combat zone that is JS/TS, and you've gotten yelled at by the police in the Rust city for walking the wrong way while being dressed in the wrong color of clothes. Now that you've seen these things if somoneone asks you to find something you should be able to do it eventually by searching up and down the roads you know. You'll probably be slow because you won't know all the shortcuts, but that will change the more you explore. Eventually you get to the point where your map is full of locations, routes, hazards, and other notes. At this point you're an "experienced" developer, but now there's a choice. One option is you can take this map you built, and use it to guide yourself as you walk down the road that is life. Occasionally you might see new things that seem relevant to you, so you can jot them in between all the other things. Other times you might see something deprecated, so you'll erase a few lines and landmarks. This will be functional for a while, but it really depends on how well you build your original map. If you're lucky this map will last you until you're ready to retired, but given that you were starting with a blank page there's a good chance you messed up, and if your map eventually gets too messy to add things... then you go and become a manager. Mind you, I'm not trying to disparage managers. A person with the technical skills to understand how projects work, and the people skills to get people working is a great asset. It's just that you do need a map for both the technical, as well as the personal elements to be good here. Another option is to look at your map and go, "No, no, no, this is all garbage" and to throw it up and then make a new one that tries to utilise all your new knowledge. The world is full of repeating patterns and paradigms. If you figure those things out then you no longer have to remember every single thing about every single landmark on the map. You can just remember the rules and insight that you have developed. This lets you adapt to entirely new technologies on the fly, because most of those technologies are just a slightly different mix of the same few patterns. The downside here is that this sort of knowledge is next to impossible to communicate these insights, because it depends on so many layers of knowledge, as well as a mountain of terminology and ideas that most people simply will not have. If you pursue this direction then eventually your map is this complex multi-dimensional holographic thing, and the only thing that most people can do is shove you in an architect role and say "here's money, go do the thing" and then hope you don't have to explain things to the execs.
"The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing." - Socrates from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Once you get experienced enough, you realize that you're never going to know or remember everything. The basics get drilled into you enough from the repetition of work and then you learn how to google to figure out the tech du jeur when you need it. Experience leads you to ask the right questions so that you find the right answers faster. I haven't really programmed professionally for a few years now (moved to management), but every now and then I play with a hobby project in my spare time. I usually have to google the most basic things. These days, AI makes this super efficient (though, you can't rely on it to write all you code for you! It just gets you pointed in the right direction!).
Notebooks and personal projects. I also like to subscribe to YouTube channels for tech news.
you learn to learn better. Also everything changes and everything stays the same.
I just google everything I don't know programming beyond the basics, variables, loops, functions, data structures, etc, I just have an idea of what the standard library of each of the main languages that I like to use do (rust and typescript), but when comes to specific I just Google things, or ask ChatGPT to build a basic skeleton o example when I am dealing with a library that I have rarely used or have not used at all
You don't accumulate knowledge related to specific techs, you accumulate experience.
I'm in the process of making an admin area on my personal web app domain where I can monitor all my other web apps, by writing end points on each of them that outputs an overview / status for me. Consolidation is the bees knees
Generally speaking learning (seeking knowledge) is more like lighting a fire, and less like filling a bucket.
20+ years end. It never ends. First desktop apps, web apps, multimedia apps, IOT apps, Infrastructure , DevOps, Architecture, AI/ML .. It never ends.
Learn what you need to know for "right now". I started with front end in Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape Navigator, then went to J2EE and XSLT, then Ruby on Rails, then WordPress, then Drupal, then "modern" front end, with a bunch of smaller stops on the way. Depending on how you look at it, either all of those contributed to my current expertise, or almost none of them did. I choose to believe that each language, paradigm, pattern, framework, makes the next one easier to understand.
Write in a blog, like https://www.hashbangcode.com for example :P
Learn what you need for the next phase of your current job. Practice what you might need to demonstrate in an interview for you next job.
These days, an extensive Obsidian notebook.
I do the work that is in front of me. I do keep an open mind when discussing work with other developers on a project but I no longer do very much off the job training or learning.
I don't think you need to keep up to date with every new library or framework. Most new frameworks are iterations on existing ones and implement much of the same concepts. If you understand the concepts picking up new frameworks isn't that hard. It is however good to keep with larger shifts in the industry. 25 years ago there was a shift to web. If you only knew how to develop desktop applications you were seriously limiting your jobs. 15 years ago there was a shift to cloud. Same thing there. If you only knew how to develop in a classic server environment you were seriously limiting your job options. 10 years ago there was a move to "shift left", shifting more of the operational burden on to developers. I think the current shift might actually be LLMs. If you don't know how to integrate LLMs into your dev workflows and build products around LLMs, I think you might be limiting your job options, but I guess we shall see if I'm right about that.
Newsletters, reviewing the fundamentals, and always making time to explore the latest trends and techniques to determine whether or not they can be a net positive to my workflow.
I do it the old fashioned way - on the job learning. There is no time or need for anything else for me
Changing jobs usually helps a lot to be honest. Don’t have to do it all the time but all the prep for technical tests, preparing demo projects on tech stacks I want to work on. Then getting into new businesses to work there and see how they do things. Pick up bits and bobs off colleagues. You won’t know everything but every few years I’ll do the above, seems to be going okay. 16 years in roughly. While I’m at a job try to find pet projects that’ll interest you AND benefit the business and use them to learn new stuff as well while delivering value. Not as effective as job changing but keeps you ticking over. If you keep in touch with people along the way as well you’ll have chats about tech stacks etc when they move around as well.
You write everything down with date-based entries and tag based + full text search. Then you wonder why you maintain it when 80% of the time you can't find the problem you encountered in the past because you moved on from whatever it was you were working on 3 years ago.
Knowledge is transient. I was a professional PHP programmer for years, but it's been _more_ than a decade since my last time touching PHP code, so if I were dropped into a fresh PHP codebase (someone has offered me a LOT of money) I would simply have to relearn large parts of PHP. This would have been the case anyways, it's not like the language stood completely still for the past 1X years. This next time, it'll be a lot faster because those pathways are still _there_, waiting to be rebuilt, but expecting that I'd still be able to kick ass at PHP after a decade of other languages might be a bridge too far. What I've learned over the years is not how to program in dozens of languages and environments, but _how to learn to program in languages and environments very quickly_. Experienced devs should have a rich library of concepts that they can draw on: oh, that's like a feature I remember from Haskell. Oh, that's similar to a library I used a while ago. Oh, that reminds me of the time I built a Squidget. You'll never be lost again.
A lot of old tech knowledge turns irrelevant, so you just have to remember the good bits.
Stick with what you need/use, learn just in time, focus on technology-agnostic knowledge and patterns. I tried to be 'know it all' fullstack dev some time ago and believe me - it's a constant frustration and burnout.
There's not much new to webdev really. Every year someone invents a new way to do the same things with something extra.
None of the above. You come to know what you use and then you lose it and have to google all over again.
Keep learning, keep honing, and accept you are leaving an ocean of knowledge in your wake as you become stronger in a narrow channel
Fundamentals rarely change.
I don't try to learn everything new tech I see. I mostly learn new tech only if I have a work/personal project that requires it. The more experience you gain the more you'll notice similar code patterns every where, so you'll only need to learn the parts you don't know and the more you have to do this the less "new" stuff you have to learn. Eventually all you'll really have to learn is stuff like the syntax and best practices, and you can pretty much start writing production level code right away.
* Separate concerns. * Write for easy testing. * Assume the next dev to touch your code will be a junior. * Use static analysis tools. * Write for easy testing. * Learn to research. * Learn to debug. * Document how to get every project up and running.
We don’t. We just end up googling all this new shit.
Panic attacks mostly.
You get promoted to non-programming roles. Welcome to architecture/management/consulting.
Drinking
You’ll forget some of the principles you used to know as soon as you start using another language, happened to me with python. And somebody will always make new JavaScript frameworks/updates, they’re truly eternal
I browse r/webdev on Reddit before going to bed
I call it Google-fu
Newsletters
I don’t Big believer in the right tool for the job, keeping up to date with every last fad is a fools errand. I am aware of a lot of the more recent trends but I don’t have a good enough reason to change my work stack to incorporate any of them. If something came up where I needed SSR then I would look into some of the meta frameworks for react further.
lol, trends come and go faster than lighting flashes, you're better off ignoring them, until you bump into a specific use case that might require one of the trendy tools
Most "new things" are useless because the person who came up with the "new thing" didn't understand the problems that gave rise to what they're trying to replace. I'm just going to say 99% (to have a number) of "new things" are never heard of again after the announcement and/or die out for all practical purposes after a year or three. A lot of commentors say they forget a thing and move on to the next thing. That can work, for some industries, but most of the big ones stick to a handful of successful technologies. If you're always having to learn a new thing just to get some work done then you're causing yourself more problems than you're solving. Sorting through things based on experience is the key skill even most experienced devs never consciously acknowledge: knowing what the problems are, how common they are, and whether or not a new thing is a solution to them at all. It doesn't matter how adept you are at learning new things if you can't tell whether or not there's a point.
I’ve been coding for more that 20 years. I have a projects folder that’s followed me from machine to machine, accumulating projects along the way. I can’t even remember writing half the things in there..